iBench

iBench is a metadata generator for creating arbitrarily large and complex mappings, schemas and schema constraints. iBench can be used with a data generator to efficiently generate realistic data integration scenarios with varying degrees of size and complexity. iBench can be used to create benchmarks for different integration tasks including (virtual) data integration, data exchange, schema evolution, mapping operators like composition and inversion, and schema matching.

The user provides a configuration file specifying what types of meta-data and data to generate (e.g., schemas, data, constraints, mappings, ...) and properties of the generated scenario. iBench produces an XML file storing the meta-data generated based on the user configuration. If requested, iBench also generates instance data for generated schemas.

Setup Guide

iBench is written in Java. To build the system you need ant. Simply run

ant

in the main directory. This will build a jar file and create a build folder. This folder contains two "fat" jar files iBench.jar and confFileGenerator.jar. iBench.jar is the actual iBench system while confFileGenerator.jar is a batch tool for creating configuration files for iBench from a template. Furthermore, this folder contains scripts for running iBench on Mac OS or Linux as well as windows.

Getting Started

The input to iBench is a configuration file (a text file with key value pairs, i.e., a Java Properties file) that determines the structure and characteristics of the scenario to be created. Some of the parameters control the structure of the generated schemas, mappings, and metadata, some parameters determine which mapping primitives the integration scenario should be composed of, and finally there are parameters that control what metadata is producted and in which format.

The tech report mentioned below explains the available primitives and parameters